A conservative group in Wisconsin filed complaints against the American Bar Association, a federal judge, and three law schools over alleged bias in hiring programs for students.
The programs violate federal law by targeting applicants based on race, age, and sexual orientation, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty said in a complaint filed Tuesday with the Justice Department and Education Department.
“The programs employ racial quotas and preferences, which have been recognized as illegal for decades,” the group said. “The programs also use race as a stereotype—some law students and attorneys are presumed to be to be “deserving” (the ABA’s actual words with respect to the Judicial Intern Opportunity Program) because of their race.”
The ABA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The group also filed the complaint against South Texas College, the University of the Pacific, and Willamette University for their roles in some of the programs.
WILL filed a separate complaint against Leo Brisbois, a federal magistrate judge in Minnesota, for his role in the ABA’s judicial internship and clerkship programs. Brisbois engaged in “intentional discrimination on the basis of race, color, . . . and national origin” by participating in the programs, the group said in a complaint filed with the judicial council of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Schools that participate in the clerkship program are required to “send (and underwrite the costs for) four to six law students who are from underrepresented communities of color,” the ABA says on its website. Judges who participate in the program are also asked to “make a commitment to strive to hire at least two minority judicial law clerks over the next five years.”
WILL is leaning into the new legal landscape sparked by the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision to ax affirmative action on college campuses. The State Bar of Wisconsin agreed to change some of the terms of its diversity fellowship program in response to a suit by the group.
WILL’s legal bench includes Luke Berg, who previously served as Assistant Attorney General and Deputy Solicitor General in Wisconsin.
Law firms Perkins Coie and Winston & Strawn were among those sued by another conservative litigation group, the American Alliance for Equal Rights, over their diversity fellowships that allegedly discriminated against White men. Some firms have changed the criteria for those programs in response to legal attacks.
American First Legal sued New York University over alleged discrimination against White men in the law school’s law review membership selection. That group, run by former Trump administration policy adviser Stephen Miller, is also pushing a US civil rights agency to investigate major corporations such as Kellogg Co. and Activision Blizzard Inc. over their diversity policies.
